Former Canadian army Captain Robert Semrau is now Second Lieutenant Semrau, thanks to the demotion which was part of his Oct 5 sentencing following the first trial of a Canadian soldier for murder on the battlefield in history. As a serving member of the CF, it’s not my place to editorialize on the trial or its verdict. The October 6th coverage of the verdict from the Globe and Mail is here. I also note that well-known Canadian military historian David Bercuson has criticised the Semrau verdict as being too ambiguous, saying that a tougher sentence was needed “to ‘draw firm lines’ between right and wrong.”
